The Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professorship is an endowed chair in

American history The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of Settlement of the Americas, the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Native American cultures in the United States, Numerous indigenous cultures formed ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, tenable for one year. The Harmsworth Professorship was established by Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere (1868–1940) in memory of his son Harold Vyvyan Alfred St George, who was killed in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and whose favourite subject was history. Lord Rothermere also established a Harmsworth Professorship in imperial and naval history at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

in honour of his son Vere, who was killed in the same war. The King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at Cambridge University was endowed by Sir Harold Harmsworth in memory of

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...

, who died in 1910. The Harmsworth Professorship was inaugurated in 1922 with an endowment of £20,000. Holders of the chair are affiliated to

Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

, and, since 2001, the

Rothermere American Institute The Rothermere American Institute is a department of the University of Oxford dedicated to the interdisciplinary and comparative study of the United States of America and its place in the world. Named after the Harmsworth family, Viscounts Roth ...

. The Rothermere American Institute also houses the Vere Harmsworth Library, named in honour of

Vere Harmsworth, 3rd Viscount Rothermere Vere Harold Esmond Harmsworth, 3rd Viscount Rothermere (27 April 1925 – 1 September 1998), known as Vere Harmsworth until 1978, was a British newspaper magnate. He controlled large media interests in the United Kingdom and United States. Busi ...

. The Harmsworth Professor is selected by the Electors of Oxford and a Committee on the Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professorship in American History at the

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...

, established in 1939.

Holders of the Harmsworth Professorship

* Samuel E. Morison (1922–1925) * Robert McNutt McElroy (1925–1939) *

Thomas J. Wertenbaker Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker (February 6, 1879 – April 22, 1966) was a leading American historian and Edwards Professor of American History at Princeton University. Born in Charlottesville, Virginia, he received his bachelor's and doctoral degree ...

(1939) *

Allan Nevins Joseph Allan Nevins (May 20, 1890 – March 5, 1971) was an American historian and journalist, known for his extensive work on the history of the Civil War and his biographies of such figures as Grover Cleveland, Hamilton Fish, Henry Ford, and J ...

(1940) *Vacant (1941) *

Walter Prescott Webb Walter Prescott Webb (April 3, 1888 in Panola County, Texas – March 8, 1963 near Austin, Texas) was an American historian noted for his groundbreaking work on the American West. As president of the Texas State Historical Association, he la ...

(1942) *Vacant (1943) *

(1944) *Vacant (1945) * Walt W. Rostow (1946) * David M. Potter (1947) * Louis M. Hacker (1948) *

Merrill Jensen Merrill Monroe Jensen (July 16, 1905 in Elk Horn, Iowa – January 30, 1980 in Madison, Wisconsin) was an American historian, whose research and writing focused on the ratification of the United States Constitution. His historical interpret ...

(1949) * Charles S. Sydnor (1950) * Lawrence H. Gipson (1951) *

Henry Steele Commager Henry Steele Commager (1902–1998) was an American historian. As one of the most active and prolific liberal intellectuals of his time, with 40 books and 700 essays and reviews, he helped define modern liberalism in the United States. In the 19 ...

(1952) * Ray Allen Billington (1953) * C. Vann Woodward (1954) * Frank Friedel (1955) * Arthur Bestor (1956) *

Walter Johnson Walter Perry Johnson (November 6, 1887 – December 10, 1946), nicknamed "Barney" and "The Big Train", was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 21-year baseball career in Major League Baseball as a right-ha ...

(1957) * Arthur S. Link (1958) * David H. Donald (1959) * George E. Mowry (1960) * Kenneth Stampp (1961) * Richard N. Current (1962) *

Frank Vandiver Frank Everson Vandiver (December 9, 1925 in Austin, Texas – January 7, 2005 in College Station, Texas) was an American Civil War historian, and former president of Texas A&M University and the University of North Texas, as well as acting presid ...

(1963) *

(1964) * Bell I. Wiley (1965) * T. Harry Williams (1966) *

Don Fehrenbacher Don Edward Fehrenbacher (August 21, 1920 – December 13, 1997) was an American historian. He wrote on politics, slavery, and Abraham Lincoln. He won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for History for '' The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law ...

(1967) * Fletcher Melvin Green (1968) *

David Brion Davis David Brion Davis (February 16, 1927 – April 14, 2019) was an American intellectual and cultural historian, and a leading authority on slavery and abolition in the Western world. He was a Sterling Professor of History at Yale University, ...

(1969) *

Charles Grier Sellers Charles Grier Sellers Jr. (September 9, 1923 – September 23, 2021) was an American historian. Sellers was best known for his book ''The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815–1846'', which offered a new interpretation of the economic, ...

(1970) *

William Leuchtenburg William Edward Leuchtenburg (born September 28, 1922) is an American historian. He is the William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a leading scholar of the life and career of Fr ...

(1971) * Oscar Handlin (1972) *

Carl Degler Carl Neumann Degler (February 6, 1921 – December 27, 2014) was an American historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. He was the Margaret Byrne Professor of American History Emeritus at Stanford University. Early life and education Degler was ...

(1973) * Richard Clement Wade (1974) *

Jack P. Greene Jack Philip Greene (born August 12, 1931) is an American historian, specializing in Colonial American history and Atlantic history. Greene was born in Lafayette, Indiana and received his PhD from Duke University in 1956. He spent most of his car ...

(1975) * John Morton Blum (1976) * Willie Lee Nichols Rose (1977) * Norman Arthur Graebner (1978) * Eric McKitrick (1979) * Morton Keller (1980) * James T. Patterson (1981) * Samuel P. Hays (1982) * John W. Shy (1983) * J. Morgan Kousser (1984) *

David Hackett Fischer David Hackett Fischer (born December 2, 1935) is University Professor of History Emeritus at Brandeis University. Fischer's major works have covered topics ranging from large macroeconomic and cultural trends ('' Albion's Seed,'' ''The Great Wave' ...

(1985) * David M. Kennedy (1986) * Richard Slator Dunn (1987) * George M. Fredrickson (1988) *

Daniel Walker Howe Daniel Walker Howe (born January 10, 1937) is an American historian who specializes in the early national period of U.S. history, with a particular interest in its intellectual and religious dimensions. He was Rhodes Professor of American Histor ...

(1989) * Joyce Appleby (1990) * James A. Henretta (1991) *

John Lewis Gaddis John Lewis Gaddis (born 1941) is an American international relations scholar, military historian, and writer. He is the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale University. He is best known for his work on the Cold War and ...

(1992) *

Eric Foner Eric Foner (; born February 7, 1943) is an American historian. He writes extensively on American political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African-American biography, the American Civil War, Reconstruc ...

(1993) *

Robert Dallek Robert A. Dallek (born May 16, 1934) is an American historian specializing in the presidents of the United States, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon. He retired as a history professor at Bost ...

(1994) * David Kennedy (1995) * Robert Middlekauff (1996) * Ernest R. May (1997) * Alan Brinkley (1998) *

Robin W. Winks Robin W. Winks (December 5, 1930 in Indiana – April 7, 2003 in New Haven, Connecticut) was an American academic, historian, diplomat, writer on the subject of fiction, especially detective novels, and advocate for the National Parks. After j ...

(1999) * T. H. Breen (2000) * David Hollinger (2001) *

Melvyn P. Leffler Melvyn Paul Leffler (born May 31, 1945, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American historian and educator, currently Edward Stettinius Professor of History at the University of Virginia. He is the winner of numerous awards, including the Bancroft Prize ...

(2002) * Richard R. Beeman (2003) * Joel H. Silbey (2004) * Kathryn Kish Sklar (2005) * Linda K. Kerber (2006) * Lizabeth Cohen (2007) * Peter S. Onuf (2008) *

Robin Kelley Robin Davis Gibran Kelley (born March 14, 1962) is an American historian and academic, who is the Gary B. Nash Professor of American History at UCLA. From 2006 to 2011, he was Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Sout ...

(2009) * Ian R. Tyrrell (2010) * Philip D. Morgan (2011) *

Gary Gerstle Gary Gerstle (born 1954) is an American historian and academic. He is the Paul Mellon Professor of American History at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College. Early life Gary Gerstle received his BA from Brown Univers ...

(2012) * Richard J. M. Blackett (2013) *

Annette Gordon-Reed Annette Gordon-Reed (born November 19, 1958) is an American historian and law professor. She is currently the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University and a professor of history in the university's Faculty of Arts & Sciences. She ...

(2014) * Kristin L. Hoganson (2015) * Alan Taylor (2016) * Elliott West (2017) *

Barbara D. Savage Barbara Dianne Savage (born 1953) is an author, historian, and the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She teaches undergraduate and graduate and courses that ...

(2018) * Peter C. Mancall (2019) * Bruce Schulman (2020)

References

{{Reflist Professorships at the University of Oxford The Queen's College, Oxford 1922 establishments in England Lists of people associated with the University of Oxford